TAKING UP LAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1713, 2 April 1906, Page 2

TAKING UP LAND.

A SOLICITOR'S EXPERIENCE.

At Auckland there appeared before ’the Crown Lands Board the holder of a section of land on the coast below Kawhia, who is also an Auckland solicitor. He applied to the Board for rebate of rent on acoouni of inaooessibility of the land. He Btated that it cost him some £l6 recently to visit the laud. He believed the land was very good, but it was extremely diffioult of access, The Commissioner of Crown Lands said the members of the Board who had toured the district recently bad ridden to and inspected this particular section. Settlers in the looality had spoken very strongly about people being allowed to take up land and hold it without doing anything to it. No improvements had been effeoted at all upon the section under consideration, If anything, there waß less excuse for this state of thiDgs in the case of this applicant than his neighbors. It wsb, of oourse, admitted that the section was accessible only to pack-horses, but there was nothing to hinder improvements being effected. Other settlers were clearing and sowing grass and grazing cattle. Mr Greenßlade, M.HR., said that to pack grass-seed into the section would cost Ll 6 a ton. . The Commissioner : Yes, but the. poioA is that neighboring holders are doing/it, and effecting improvements. Mr Harris; Did you mean to go upon the land when you took it up 1 The Applicant: I did not mean to do so when I first took it up, but I had a brother I intended should reside tiare. I was offered a premium on that seotion the day I took it up. The Commissioner: I suppose, like a good many others, you never went to look at the land.

The Applicant: No, as a matter offaol I had never seen the land when I took il up. The Commissioner: We look at it iu this way, that a man should always look at land before he takes it up. Mr Greenslade Baid the applicant had made a mistake, and should be met to some extent by the Board.

The Commissioner: There is no question that if farmers’ sons had taken up this land, and wanted to make a living out of it, they would be residing on it and effecting improvements. Mr Armstrong: I don’t think we should be hard upon him. Mr Harris: The principle is wrong ; I will vote against any reduction. The Commissioner: lam going to vote against it myself. Messrs Greenslade, Ranshaw, and Armstrong voting for the reduction, it was carried.

The Commissioner: If a farmer bad taken up the land he would be living upon it now. Of oourse, the applicant wa3 perfectly honest and straightforward about the matter, in saying that his brother and not himself wa9 to reside on the land, lam quite sure if any member of the Board had taken up that laud he " would have found a way of doing something with it.—N.Z. Herald.